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SINGAPORE: Recently, four political coalitions in Malaysia – Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and Gerakan Tanah Air – held large-scale meetings to prepare for a possible snap election.
The next general election (GE) must be held before September 2023 but several quarters within Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob’s party, UMNO, insist it must be held soon.
Ismail Sabri, however, contends that his ruling coalition needs more time. The next GE will likely witness three- and four-cornered fights in many constituencies, with the high likelihood that no single coalition will form the government as a standalone bloc. If no coalition can win the polls outright, the composition of the next government will likely be decided post-GE after serious bargaining among political parties.
Since 2008, Malaysia’s dominant one-coalition system has effectively evolved into a two-coalition party system, with the main opposition parties’ Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Coalition, eroding Barisan Nasional’s dominance over time.
In 2018, Pakatan Harapan outdid Barisan Nasional’s winning streak, securing power for the first time. However, the Pakatan Harapan government crumbled within two years of its historic victory and was replaced by Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional. Still, the two-coalition system remained intact for several months, since Barisan Nasional was subsumed under Perikatan Nasional.
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